de la Rose is likely a depth forward, but given that the Red Wings are already scratching Martin Frk and sometimes-forward Luke Witkowski, one has to question what adding yet another forward get them.

My guess? This gives the team some added depth if they decide to send Michael Rasmussen back to juniors. Evgeny Svechnikov is hurt and Filip Zadina seems to need more time in Grand Rapids. de la Rose gives them a body who they can let sit in the press box if that’s all they need.

]]>Retired Numbers: Who’s Next?https://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/10/13/retired-numbers-whos-next/
https://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/10/13/retired-numbers-whos-next/#commentsSat, 13 Oct 2018 13:45:56 +0000https://www.detroithockey.net/news/?p=4919There’s been buzz over the last couple seasons about Sergei Fedorov‘s #91 being retired by the Red Wings, something that Jim Devellano seemed to put the kibosh on during the somewhat-surprising announcement on Thursday that Red Kelly’s #4 would head to the rafters later this season.

But if not Fedorov, and with the team seemingly looking to its more-distant past for numbers to honor, who might be next?

Devellano tells us that, in order for your number to be retired by the Detroit Red Wings, you have to win a Stanley Cup in Detroit. We’re also told that Larry Aurie’s number is not retired because he’s not in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Additionally, you have to not have offended the Ilitch family and they don’t have to explain who has offended them, so that’s a bit of a wildcard that I’ll ignore here.

There are 23 players who fit those requirements for Detroit. As of February, eight of them will be in the rafters. That leaves 15 remaining.

Do they all qualify? Well, Luc Robitaille is one of those and I think you can eliminate him, so lets put a couple more limits on it.

No player with a currently-retired number had fewer than three Stanley Cups with Detroit. I think it’s safe to drop that down to two. Sid Abel’s 570 games played with Detroit is the lowest of those whose numbers have already been retired but it was across twelve seasons. As such, I think we can go with a limit of nine seasons or 600 games played, which helps us cover a few different eras.

That eliminates Robitaille, Dominic Hasek, Brett Hull, Igor Larionov, Larry Murphy, and Viacheslav Fetisov from the modern era. Marty Barry, Glenn Hall, and Harry Lumley are also out – though Hall’s only Cup with Detroit was as a spare goalie without playing a game, so he probably should have been eliminated even earlier.

That leaves us with six. Fedorov is out for now, per Jimmy D, but they’re clearly holding his number since Brad Richards couldn’t have it. Brendan Shanahan and Chris Chelios both have had their numbers given out multiple times since they left the team, so I would assume they’re out, or at least not immediately under consideration.

Ebbie Goodfellow won two Cups with the Red Wings in the 1930s while playing 557 games across 14 seasons, so he’s an option. His #5 is now retired for Nicklas Lidstrom, though, so there probably wouldn’t be quite so big of a ceremony to retire a number that’s already in the rafters.

Syd Howe only played 515 games with Detroit but did so across 12 seasons, winning three Stanley Cups while wearing #8.

I think the most likely option of the group, though is Marcel Pronovost and his #3, with 983 games played across 15 seasons and four Stanley Cups. A two-time first team All-Star and two time second-team All-Star, he – along with Kelly – was the a cornerstone of the blueline for the 1950s Stanley Cup teams.

All of that said… I don’t think we’ll see any of these retired. What is the one thing that Red Kelly has over the three other old-timers? He’s still alive. It looks a lot more like you’re actually honoring the player and not just trying to get people to buy tickets if the player can actually show up to the event.

Of course, we still don’t know why the Red Wings are retiring Kelly’s number after so long, so maybe there’s more here that we don’t know.

]]>https://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/10/13/retired-numbers-whos-next/feed/2On Jersey Number Retirementshttps://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/10/12/on-jersey-number-retirements/
Fri, 12 Oct 2018 18:10:13 +0000https://www.detroithockey.net/news/?p=4917The Red Wings announced yesterday that they will retire the #4 of Leonard “Red” Kelly prior to their game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on February 1, 2019.

Kelly won four Stanley Cups as a defenseman with the Red Wings in the early 1950s, was the team’s captain later in the decade, and then was traded to the Maple Leafs during the 1959-60 season (as punishment for disclosing that he had played on a broken ankle, something Detroit general manager Jack Adams was keeping secret). He switched to playing center with Toronto and won four more Stanley Cups.

After retiring in 1967, Kelly was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1969. The Maple Leafs honored his number on October 4, 2006, and fully retired it on October 15, 2016, in a celebration of the team’s 100th anniversary.

Retiring Red Kelly’s number makes sense but I still can’t shake a cynical feeling about it.

It’s an honor that should have happened in the early 1990s. The Red Wings retired Ted Lindsay‘s #7 and Alex Delvecchio‘s #10 in 1991, Terry Sawchuk’s #1 in 1994, and Sid Abel’s #12 in 1995. Kelly would have fit perfectly into that group as the core of the team’s early 1950s Stanley Cup Championships. That his number wasn’t raised to the rafters then seemed to show that it wouldn’t be.

Since then we’ve seen Steve Yzerman‘s #19 and Nicklas Lidstrom‘s #5 raised, with much pomp and circumstance leading up to the events. The dates were announced before the start of the season and ticket packages were sold around them.

So to see Kelly’s number retired now, with the announcement tucked into a pregame press availability, gives me a bad vibe. It feels to me like a ploy to get people to come down to a game between a bad team and a very good team.

That said, as I Tweeted last night, the timing makes more sense than the Wings usually give to jersey retirements. Toronto is the perfect opponent to raise Kelly’s number against, while history shows the team preferring to do so against a lesser draw on a weeknight to boost their ticket sales. So if there’s a reason to give the team the benefit of the doubt, it’s that.

Whatever the reason, a deserving number is going to the rafters, righting the wrong of it not having been up there already.

But if I’m talking about wrongs, I have to mention Larry Aurie. The franchise’s first star player, Aurie led the Red Wings in their early days, including when the team was known as the Cougars and the Falcons.

Jack Adams thought enough of Aurie that his #6 was retired in 1939, when Aurie hung up his skates. It was later brought back into circulation so that Aurie’s cousin, Cummy Burton, could wear it, then put back into retirement.

Gordie Howe‘s #9 later joined Aurie’s #6 as unavailable, but in old arenas like The Olympia, teams rarely raised numbers to the rafters.

That changed with the team’s move to Joe Louis Arena and Mike and Marian Ilitch buying the team from the Norris family. Howe’s #9 was the first number given a banner. Ted Lindsay, Alex Delvecchio, Terry Sawchuk, and Sid Abel would follow. Aurie did not.

At some point, the team’s story became that the core of the 1950s Cup Championship teams were all Hall of Famers and that only those in the HHOF would get banners. Aurie never made it to the Hall, so his number would be retired but not honored.

Then the 2000-01 NHL Guide and Record Book came out, with Aurie’s #6 no longer listed among the team’s retired numbers. Suddenly it was not only not honored but not even retired at all.

Despite this seeming lost of status, #6 was not assigned between 2000 and 2010, when Mike Modano signed with Detroit. Modano – unable to get his usual #9 due to it’s retirement for Howe – asked about #6.

“I wanted No. 6, but they told me about Larry Aurie,” said Modano, referring to Aurie, who played between 1927-39, and had his number retired by former Wings owner James Norris.

“I thought it would be easy to just flip 9 to 6,” Modano said. “I would have loved 6, but maybe 90.”

If the all-time leading American scorer can’t have the number, that sure sounds to me like it’s retired.

They may not have raised banners to celebrate that in the 1930s, but we do now, and it’s time for Aurie’s number to have that honor.

There was buzz over the summer that Fedorov’s #91 might be retired this season, something that didn’t come to happen. Chris Ilitch commented on that when Kelly’s number retirement was announced.

“Obviously Sergei was an outstanding Red Wing. He was a big part of bringing three Stanley Cups to Detroit. He’s in the Hockey Hall of Fame,” Ilitch answered. “The subject of number retirement, it’s an important subject, it deserves a lot of conversation, a lot of thought. We’re continuously evaluating that with our organization. Related to 91 and 40 (Henrik Zetterberg), let’s see what the future holds.”

It wasn’t what Ilitch said, though, that really explained where Fedorov stands with the organization. That was Jim Devellano.

“There are other things that I’m not going to get into,” Devellano said. “Do you realize that he wanted out of the Red Wings (organization) on two occasions? Are you familiar with that? Did you know he turned the owners down on a 5-year, $50 million contract? Did you know he signed an offer sheet with the Carolina Hurricanes and we had to match with a $24 million signing bonus?”

What this makes clear is that this is an organization that holds grudges.

You buy a team, you get to run it how you want, and that means you don’t have to honor any players you don’t want to. We’ve seen that with Aurie (for whatever reason) and we’ll see that with Fedorov. We’ll probably see it with Pavel Datsyuk.

]]>Seats and Suchhttps://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/10/09/seats-and-such/
Tue, 09 Oct 2018 16:23:42 +0000https://www.detroithockey.net/news/?p=4913Yesterday, Ilitch Holdings announced that the red seats at Little Caesars Arena will be replaced by black ones in a project starting in December.

The bright red seats – and the lack of people in them – have been a point of discussion since the arena opened a year ago.

Neither the Red Wings nor the Pistons are particularly good right now and the arena was designed with “gathering places” that keep ticketholders out of the arena bowl. This leaves large groups of empty bright red seats clearly visible to the TV audience.

Ilitch Holdings – who owns the arena – did not cite this perception as a reason for making the change, however.

“We evaluated every aspect of arena operations during the inaugural year and after numerous discussions with the Pistons and other stakeholders, we have made the decision to install black seats at Little Caesars Arena,” said Chris Granger, group president of Sports & Entertainment for Ilitch Holdings.

If there hadn’t been so much talk about how bad the empty red seats looked, it would be easy to take this statement at face value. With the arena originally designed just for the Red Wings, after the first year this issue for the Pistons was found and so they’re fixing it. We do have that context, though, so we can’t ignore it.

As a fan, it’s easy to say that one would rather see the organizations working to put people in those seats rather than masking the fact that they’re empty. As I Tweeted this morning, Mike Ilitch famously gave away cars to get fans in the doors of Joe Louis Arena while he worked to rebuild the franchise. That his son chooses to cover up the problem rather than actually fill the seats feels wrong.

That said, there are levels where it makes sense.

The cost of replacing the seats is reportedly $3.5 million. If you applied that money to discounting tickets, over roughly 18500 seats and 80 home games between the Red Wings and Pistons, you’d get about a $2 discount per ticket per game. It’s not enough to get those seats sold and it doesn’t account for future seasons.

Additionally, even if you find a way to make sure every ticket to every game is sold, the arena was designed with those aforementioned “gathering places.” There’s nothing stopping people who bought tickets from hanging out somewhere other than their seat. It’s too late to argue about whether or not the arena should have been built that way or why anyone would buy tickets to a game just to sit somewhere else to watch it but what can be changed is how it looks when that happens.

If Ilitch Holdings is trying to fix the optics of a bunch of empty seats, this isn’t a bad way to do it. But as a fan, it still leaves me with a bad feeling. It’s a reminder of just how much these teams are a passion for their fanbases but a business to their owners.

]]>Thoughts on Game Onehttps://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/10/05/thoughts-on-game-one-2/
Fri, 05 Oct 2018 16:31:49 +0000https://www.detroithockey.net/news/?p=4910I spent most of the Red Wings’ 2018-19 season opener watching how the five players making their debuts looked. Mostly eye-test stuff, this is not a detailed breakdown, but here are my thoughts nonetheless.

Christoffer Ehn
There was a stretch in the third period where I was pleasantly surprised to see Ehn on the ice for two consecutive scheduled shifts. That’s how little ice time he got (8:09, by far the fewest minutes of any Red Wing and only beating out Sonny Milano‘s 7:30). That’s largely driven by the fact that his linemates were getting time on special teams, so it’s not his fault, but it still makes it hard to get much of a read on him.

Michael Rasmussen
I felt like I was looking for him and not finding him. Is that because he was invisible or because he only got 12:06 of ice time? Probably a combination of the two.

I will say that the look that I got from staff at the LCA Team Store when I asked if they had any Rasmussen jerseys was slightly hilarious. It’s rare to come across someone else with my last name, I’m going to have fun with it.

Filip Hronek
Hronek had at least three giveaways that weren’t recorded as such and on one of those I was certain it was going to turn into a goal against. He also wasn’t afraid to shoot the puck, even if those shots didn’t always end up on net. Jeff Blashill said during the preseason that Hronek needs to consistently have more positives than negatives and I don’t think he did last night.

Libor Sulak
There were a could times Sulak surprised me when he was carrying the puck on a rush and just held onto it himself, ending up in an offensive-zone corner. On one hand, these plays didn’t turn into anything so they probably weren’t the right call. On the other hand, with how predictable the Red Wings’ zone entries have been over he last several years, with over-reliance on getting too cute with the puck, it was kind of nice to see someone willing to go all Thanos on it – “Fine… I’ll do it myself.”

Dennis Cholowski
The goal-scorer of the bunch, Cholowski looked solid. He showed great timing on that goal, stepping up exactly when he should. But I don’t think we shouldn’t get too wrapped up in that, because I really don’t remember a lot of positives for him other than that. Kind of the inverse of Hronek, where he didn’t make many mistakes or do a whole lot, other than that goal.

That said, one thing I noticed is that, when I was shooting photos during the game, I kept coming back to him. Someone my eye was just drawn to. Not sure if that means anything.

Joe Hicketts
Hicketts wasn’t one of the five players making his debut but as part of the kid contingent, I figured he deserved some thoughts. Once or twice there was a group of bodies around the Detroit net and Hicketts came screaming in to clear things out. It was this combination of awesome and hilarious to see, at his height.

Henrik Zetterberg
It was time. Zetterberg has been playing on a bad back forever and with what it took for him to play last year, him calling it a career before the start of training camp made sense. I’ve been ready for the team to move on, to name a new captain, all of that.

But… Man… Watching him come out for the ceremonial puck drop? That was hard. I’m ready for this team to rebuild. Zetterberg’s absence opens up a roster spot for that. It comes at the cost of an icon, though.

]]>Larkin, Nielsen Added to Red Wings Captaincy Rotationhttps://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/10/03/larkin-nielsen-added-to-red-wings-captaincy-rotation/
https://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/10/03/larkin-nielsen-added-to-red-wings-captaincy-rotation/#commentsWed, 03 Oct 2018 17:05:19 +0000https://www.detroithockey.net/news/?p=4906Reporting from the Red Wings’ practice today, Helene St. James of the Free Press notes that the the team will not name a new captain this season, instead adding Dylan Larkin as a third alternate for home games with Frans Nielsen taking that role on the road.

Red Wings name Frans Nielsen & Dylan Larkin as alternate captains, will rotate duties. Nielsen on road, Larkin at home. They join Niklas Kronwall & Justin Abdelkader in wearing an ‘A.’
No captain for time being.

As I noted on Twitter, I expect that Niklas Kronwall will retire this summer and Larkin will take on the C, leaving Abdelkader and Nielsen with the As next season.

Given that the team isn’t even giving lip service to the idea of Henrik Zetterberg still being a part of this team – having given away his dressing room stall and with him doing a ceremonial puck drop at Thursday’s home opener – I would have almost preferred to see the Red Wings just name a new captain now.

In the end, though, it doesn’t really matter. Keep in mind that this is a team that has rolled with fewer than three captains for several games over the past few seasons. Clearly who actually wears a letter isn’t all that important.

]]>https://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/10/03/larkin-nielsen-added-to-red-wings-captaincy-rotation/feed/1Griffins Jersey Number Updateshttps://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/09/18/griffins-jersey-number-updates-2/
https://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/09/18/griffins-jersey-number-updates-2/#commentsTue, 18 Sep 2018 20:31:59 +0000https://www.detroithockey.net/news/?p=4901With a relaunched website for the Grand Rapids Griffins comes an updated roster and a look at some new numbers for players entering the 2018-19 season.

Some of the Griffins newcomers have caused returning players to switch their numbers. Axel Holmstrom will take his third number with the team, switching to #10 to allow Chris Terry to take #25. Dylan Sadowy,meanwhile loses his #29 to new goalie Harri Sateri, switching to #28.

Trevor Yates switches from #53 to #51, with no one taking his old number.

Jake Chelios will not follow in the footsteps of his father and wear #22 for the Griffins, taking the #27 he wore with the Charlotte Checkers instead. The #22 goes to Wade Megan.

]]>https://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/09/18/griffins-jersey-number-updates-2/feed/1Zetterberg Officially Done Playinghttps://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/09/14/zetterberg-officially-done-playing/
Fri, 14 Sep 2018 14:13:48 +0000https://www.detroithockey.net/news/?p=4898Detroit general manager Ken Holland announced today that team captain Henrik Zetterberg‘s back condition will keep him from returning to play. His career is over and he will ride out the final three years of his contract on long-term injured reserve.

#RedWings Holland said Zetterberg has decided he can no longer play due to degenerative back condition. Has consulted doctors and nothing they can do.

The announcement does not come as a surprise, with each update on Zetterberg’s condition over the summer getting progressively worse.

While the team will be without its leader, Zetterberg going on LTIR does solve their salary cap situation. Additionally, the team could look to move his contract (or that of Johan Franzen, also “LTIRetired”) to a team that needs to get to the salary cap floor.

]]>2018 Training Camp Jersey Number Noteshttps://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/09/13/2018-training-camp-jersey-number-notes/
https://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/09/13/2018-training-camp-jersey-number-notes/#commentsThu, 13 Sep 2018 16:05:18 +0000https://www.detroithockey.net/news/?p=4894The Red Wings released their 2018 training camp rosters today and with that any changed jersey numbers for players in the organization.

Unsurprisingly, July 1st free agent signees Thomas Vanek and Jonathan Bernier will wear their usual #26 and #45, with Vanek opting not to go back to the #62 he wore in his first stint with Detroit (as #26 then belonged to Tomas Jurco).

Evgeny Svechnikov appears to have switched for the second year in a row, going from the #77 he wears in Grand Rapids to the #37 he wore for his first year in Detroit.

With Svechnikov back in #37, Griffins captain Matt Ford will wear #77 in camp rather than the #79 he had last year.

Chris Terry keeps the #15 he was assigned for the prospects tournament while Colin Campbell, having lost his previous #45 to Bernier, takes the #17 vacated by the departure of David Booth.

I’d expected Tyler Bertuzzi to switch to #17 but he keeps his #59. Maybe next year.

Pro tryout Jussi Jokinen will wear the #20 previously held by Dan Renouf while Griffins-bound forward Wade Megan has been assigned the #22 of Matt Lorito, who moved on to the Islanders organization.

Tryout Bryan Moore takes the #61 previously worn by Xavier Ouellet, who was bought out and signed with Montreal this summer.

Goalies

]]>https://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/09/13/2018-training-camp-jersey-number-notes/feed/1Red Wings Reveal New “Hockeytown” Logohttps://www.detroithockey.net/news/2018/09/12/red-wings-reveal-new-hockeytown-logo/
Wed, 12 Sep 2018 17:14:10 +0000https://www.detroithockey.net/news/?p=4891We learned several weeks ago that the Red Wings would be removing the “Hockeytown” logo from center ice at Little Caesars Arena, with the promise of something new to be unveiled down the road.

Today was that unveiling, as the Red Wings released an updated “Hockeytown” logo alongside new promotional initiatives for the coming season.

Per the Red Wings…

The logo was designed by Olympia Entertainment’s creative team in conjunction with Troy, Mich.-based SMZ Advertising. The logo was selected following research collected from fans of all ages and Red Wings season ticket holders.

I’m on the record (repeatedly) as disliking the original “Hockeytown” logo. While this is an improvement, it still comes across as extremely lazy to me. As I often said about the original, this one only “says” Hockeytown because the word is literally plastered across the logo.